Apple Officially Drops 'Mac' Name from OS X Mountain Lion

[sunspot42]

Hmmmm...

Maybe this is their endgame... By removing the "Mac" from the name, it can be installed on something other than a Mac. With Windows 8 not due out until the end of 2012, they could roll this out to all PCs by summer and cut it off at the pass. Everyone with a PC and an iPhone would be considering that upgrade.

I don't know why you were modded down for this. It's unlikely, but it's certainly possible that Apple would now consider decoupling the OS X from the Mac, and allow it to run on ANY Intel hardware (or, perhaps, any Intel box that meets certain specifications / certifications).

That would be a cheap way for Apple to penetrate deeper into the enterprise with OS X. And it's not like they're having any trouble moving Macs anymore. They'd simply position the Mac as a very high-end PC that comes with OS X pre-installed.

Embrace and extend?

 

[sazivad]

I honestly can't fathom how people manage to delude themselves so much over a simple name change. If you haven't already read John Gruber's article on Mountain Lion (http://daringfireball.net/2012/02/mountain_lion) I really recommend doing so because it's incredibly poignant.

I especially like the part about Apple removing "cruft." That's what I think this is - not total unification of the OSes, but having more consistency between the two.

Plus, pretty much the only thing Apple has done is add features. The only thing I can think of that they removed is X11, and you can still get XQuartz.

 

[Bubba Satori]

That link in particular troubles me. More and more I see companies wanting consumers to embrace cloud computing under this notion that it's so much more convenient than having actual possession of the data on your computer.

I love the way iCal synchs on multiple devices, and I'm sure for other applications it works great, but I really fear the day that the majority of computers ship with NO form of data storage and instead give the companies you bought them from COMPLETE control of the data that used to be stored on a hard drive inside your computer.

Somebody else gets it.

Convenience.
o
n
t
r
o
l
.

Sheeple needs shepherds to open and close the gates.

 

[Colpeas]

Have you noticed, that in all the previews Mountain Lion is running on a laptop? I guess i know why - it *sucks* on a big display. It seems to me like they've forgotten about desktop computers with 20+ inch screens and focused only on 11"/13" MacBooks...

 

[lyngo]

Mac App Store

Since they a getting rid of the Mac name in Mac OS X, why are they going to still have Mac in the Mac App Store? Wouldn't getting rid of the Mac moniker mean that they are focusing Mac on the hardware?

Maybe I am reading into it, but it something worth discussing, I think. Thoughts?

 

[benthewraith]

Have you noticed, that in all the previews Mountain Lion is running on a laptop? I guess i know why - it *sucks* on a big display. It seems to me like they've forgotten about desktop computers with 20+ inch screens and focused only on 11"/13" MacBooks...

I'm guessing you missed the gigantic iMac running Mountain Lion on the Apple page?

 

[ChrisTX]

My first hands on with the Mac caused me to fall in love with Apple. This is very troubling to me. I love iOS, but Mac is where the heart is!

 

[svedish]

Just to say that I share the serious concerns about the future of the computers I've used to work for the last 15-20 years. The idea of the desktop at the service of the mobile consumer centric toys scares me as hell. I managed to successfully downgrade this late 2011 MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard. Best system ever for me. Mature and stable. But now the clock starts to tick, I got the lifespan of these two computers (my new MBP and iMac) left. What do I do after? Move to Linux? I guess it will soon be the end for us older pro users. My God...

P.S. Shall we start a petition??

 

[Tadros]

OSX won't run on any other hardware other than Apple. The reason being it would have to support thousands and thousands of different types of hardware... which is a pain to develop for and it means apps in the app store would also need to be developed for multiple systems on which some machines would not be able to run some apps, causing confusion and annoying problems for the consumer.

Mac sales have continually each year been beating PC in increase and it would be silly to drop mac's for PC now.

Of course they have beaten PC sales "in increase." When you have almost 100% of the market, the only place to go is down LOL

 

[David085]

Can't wait later this year to buy Mountain Lion on the Mac App Store I am excited they working on Mountain Lion already since the released of Lion last year

 

[Colpeas]

I'm guessing you missed the gigantic iMac running Mountain Lion on the Apple page?

One picture doesn't cut it.

 

[xraydoc]

I don't want my iPhone to talk to my Mac, I don't want everything in the cloud. I want my devices to be separate and do what they each do best. This fully integrated world Apple is trying to build will be it's downfall.

You don't? Hell, I do. I do very much.

Why do I need to manually sync my files over mutle devices, and if I forget I'm suck with an old version on some of my devices and new on others. It's 2012 for goodness sake.

This is exactly why I keep nearly all my documents on 50GB of DropBox - so my iMac at home, Mac mini at work and Air for mobile work are always in sync. If iCloud can do all this for me - and keep my iPhone and iPad in sync, too, why the hell wouldn't I want this??

Why shouldn't I be able to continue an iMessage conversation from whatever device is in front of me? Yes, I can do that with Google Talk or something, but I'm an iPhone/iPad user, not an Android user.

I consider myself a professional (I make a living partly by writing and by lecturing -- preferably with Keynote but use PowerPoint where necessary). And I see this as nothing but of benefit to me.

And I couldn't care less if it's called "Mac OS X" or "OS X". Macs are growing faster than any other PC segment - Apple isn't killing the Mac any time soon. But I have no problem with bringing some handy features of iOS in to the Mac.

 

[hurley999jb]

Like Lexus

Lexus did this last year on all their vehicles deciding that the logo sufficed. Then their sales dropped... a lot.

 

[KnightWRX]

Lion was the beginning of a unification of sorts between the Mac OS and iOS.

Yes, Lion, shipped in 2011, was the very beginning. The fact that OS X and iOS shared display servers, core graphics/audio/media APIs, the NeXTSTEP frameworks, the frigging Darwin kernel is not some kind of "unification", no siree.

Launchpad or it's not unified.

What a load of crap Macrumors, at least be informed of the products you cover.

 

[Kentochan]

I'm gonna miss the "Mac" in "Mac OS X". I don't know if it's only me, but "OS X" just doesn't sound as good.

 

[Renzatic]

Yes, Lion, shipped in 2011, was the very beginning. The fact that OS X and iOS shared display servers, core graphics/audio/media APIs, the NeXTSTEP frameworks, the frigging Darwin kernel is not some kind of "unification", no siree.

Launchpad or it's not unified.

What a load of crap Macrumors, at least be informed of the products you cover.

...well, you could consider it a unification of apps and interfaces, at least.

 

[Glideslope]

Arm

Won't be long till Apple Drops X86 either.

 

[faroZ06]

I think the new Mac OSs are actually much better for professional organizations. Keep your work documents in iCloud, have less malware, and send iMessages to your employees! Now all they need is to make Mac OS X...er, OS X Server have some kind of Apple ID manager thing in it.

Man, a large business could be Mac-based if they weren't all already Linux-server-based and Windows-PC-based.

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Somebody else gets it.

Convenience.
o
n
t
r
o
l
.

Sheeple needs shepherds to open and close the gates.

Hey, I'd rather have a big company control the file management than someone who fails at using a computer.

 

[Renzatic]

Won't be long till Apple Drops X86 either.

I know! I can't wait! Things are gonna be SO SLOW!

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I don't know why you were modded down for this. It's unlikely, but it's certainly possible that Apple would now consider decoupling the OS X from the Mac, and allow it to run on ANY Intel hardware (or, perhaps, any Intel box that meets certain specifications / certifications).

That would be a cheap way for Apple to penetrate deeper into the enterprise with OS X. And it's not like they're having any trouble moving Macs anymore. They'd simply position the Mac as a very high-end PC that comes with OS X pre-installed.

Embrace and extend?

Steve Jobs would have absolutely never have allowed this. Read his bio, though his quotes it's pretty clear he considers that to be the equivalent of... IDK... serving a great meal on a dish made of fecal matter. Is the content good? Sure, but you'd really rather not have it served to you that way.

Now that he's gone, it's possible Tim Cook would allow it, but I think Steve Jobs has pretty firmly embedded the lesson of "licensing Mac OS 8 was the worst decision ever and we should NEVER EVER license Mac OS X or iOS" into all of the leaders at Apple.

 

[faroZ06]

Of course they have beaten PC sales "in increase." When you have almost 100% of the market, the only place to go is down LOL

Well, Apple has roughly 13% market share in PC OSs, so Windows could have gained on them. When you're the minority, it's easy to die. The fact that they're rising against a very mainstream OS is good.

 

[KnightWRX]

...well, you could consider it a unification of apps and interfaces, at least.

Interface ? Not ready to go there. Apps ? 'bout damn time. No seriously, how dumb was it that Facetime was iOS exclusive when iChat had video conferencing, albeit not compatible ? What good is it having Games without a shared Gamecenter account for all achievements accross both my iOS and OS X games ? iMessage is really just IM, where's my desktop client ?

Apps/protocols being reused and shared makes sense. Same as underlying infrastructure.

What remains and will remain different is UI. Launchpad vs Springboard ? Sure, they might look and behave somewhat the same, but the rest of the UI sure doesn't. A trackpad is not a touch screen. Lion showed us how to use the trackpad properly with the gestures it introduced. Also, windowing and mission control/expose/spaces are not going away anytime soon.

Then we have things like versions, Time machine and the Finder for managing files and versions of files. No really, iOS and OS X where always somewhat merged. They are now sharing what is shareable and should be shared. But in the end, they will always remain separate as long as the hardware they both use is different.

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Well, Apple has roughly 13% market share in PC OSs

In the US. Worldwide their share is lower.

 

[faroZ06]

Interface ? Not ready to go there. Apps ? 'bout **** time. No seriously, how dumb was it that Facetime was iOS exclusive when iChat had video conferencing, albeit not compatible ? What good is it having Games without a shared Gamecenter account for all achievements accross both my iOS and OS X games ? iMessage is really just IM, where's my desktop client ?

Apps/protocols being reused and shared makes sense. Same as underlying infrastructure.

What remains and will remain different is UI. Launchpad vs Springboard ? Sure, they might look and behave somewhat the same, but the rest of the UI sure doesn't. A trackpad is not a touch screen. Lion showed us how to use the trackpad properly with the gestures it introduced. Also, windowing and mission control/expose/spaces are not going away anytime soon.

Then we have things like versions, Time machine and the Finder for managing files and versions of files. No really, iOS and OS X where always somewhat merged. They are now sharing what is shareable and should be shared. But in the end, they will always remain separate as long as the hardware they both use is different.

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In the US. Worldwide their share is lower.

Right. The desktop OS and the mobile OS will never be the same. People keep predicting it and making a big commotion about it, but the whole intended use of the PC is different from the intended use of the portable device. All they will - and should - do is make Mac OS and iOS talk more and share a few good features between them. HP already tried a touchscreen computer... it failed.

 

[ixodes]

If you read John Gruber's article on OSX Mountain Lion on his daringfireball.net blog, he says in there that OSX is moving to an annual release cycle. This is direct information he got after a private briefing with Apple's top brass.

The brilliance behind an annual release via only the App Store is it assures Apple's software revenues will spike once a year.

Next they will require new hardware on an annual basis as well. As a result Apples ROI will increase faster than ever.

Big Oil has had it too good, for too long. Now it's time to pay Apple.

Apple will manipulate their words to make everyone feel warm & fuzzy, while completely controlling the billions of users. It's a big win for Apple Inc.

 

[KnightWRX]

Right. The desktop OS and the mobile OS will never be the same. People keep predicting it and making a big commotion about it, but the whole intended use of the PC is different from the intended use of the portable device. All they will - and should - do is make Mac OS and iOS talk more and share a few good features between them. HP already tried a touchscreen computer... it failed.

Why did you censor a word in my post that the forum didn't censor ?

And I think HP still sells their touchscreen computer, it's quite apt at what it is : A Kiosk PC or a POS (Point of Sale guys, not that other POS... geez...) system. Touchscreen PCs have been filling that niche quite nicely for decades now. As generalized desktops and laptops for everyday work ? Meh, Steve said it best, your arms would get sore.